Agesilaus and Pompey were the first soldiers of their time, and both lived to see the state they served taken out of their hands. Agesilaus, king of Sparta, won in Asia and then watched Sparta break at Leuctra. Pompey cleared the sea of pirates, settled the east, and lost the republic to Caesar at Pharsalus.

Plutarch gives Pompey the larger wars and the worse political judgment. He gives Agesilaus a harder obedience to his city, even when the city was wrong. Each man died away from the power he had held.